Cultural influences in the Submachine series

It has been observed that there is a large span of influence on the Submachine series that originates from ancient civilizations and cultures. Many theories of the Submachine state that the Submachine itself can travel through time, offering an explanation for relics and temples discovered. Other theories state that the Submachine seems to be able to "absorb" things into itself; old abandoned temples and such could be absorbed merely by location. Yet a third viewpoint states that the people who built the Submachine used ancient "magic" to help in the building of the Submachine (like the Chronon in the Edge). However, the true explanation may be a combination of the three, or may even be something totally different.

These beetles are called scarabs, amulets that represent the cycle of the sun through the sky during a day, and as such they were related to Ra.[1] They were often used as seals, carrying the names of important people. Some pharaohs even published commemorative scarabs to praise themselves.[2]

A statue of a jackal representing Anubis blocks the entrance to the chamber containing the Wisdom Gem in the ancient ruins. Similar statues are located in the ancient section and in the Root. Anubis also makes an appearance in Submachine 10: The Exit as a pair of rotating jackal head statues in the iron pyramid. When activated, the statues teleport the player to different parts of the location.

Anubis was the divine embalmer and one of the mighty gods of the underworld.

In Submachine 6: The Edge, in the tunnels area, there is a portrait of the Egyptian god Thoth. This engraving can also be found in a secret location in the cliffs. There, information can be read about Thoth. In the chronon area Thoth's name is on the hour glass wheel, written with hieroglyphs. The chronon's walls themselves are covered in hieroglyphs. Closer inspection reveals that they display the same sentences over and over again. Thoth is again mentioned in a note in Submachine 10.

Thoth was the Egyptian god of magic, writing, science and also helped with judging the dead. Thoth, in ancient Egypt, was worshipped mainly in the city of Hermopolis. He is usually shown with the head of an ibis and the body of a man.

An eye of Horus can be found in Submachine 9 and Submachine 10. It appears on a brass plate, twice in the pyramid and twice in the iron pyramid. In both instances it is used to signal to the player where a device in one room can solve a problem giving access to another part of the location in a second room.

The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health.

Mesopotamia

Ziggurats were seen as resting places of gods by many, and as such they were not for common folk. Only priest could climb to these temples and attend to their duties.

It seems that there were shrines on top of the ziggurats. This is nicely represented by placing the portal on the top of the building.

The material of the ziggurat is not common Mesopotamian, however, but rather in the style of the Mainframe of the Edge. Even the footsteps in the side of the tower are the same as the ones found there, which are theorized to have been built for Sub-bots.

Many other types of runes are used in many other parts of the Subnet, such as the defense system and even in the Core.

Originally runes were used by different Germanic tribes. Runes were developed by them from the Old Italic Alphabet[4] as their own writing system. Other peoples took these runes and made their own versions of them afterwards.

Greece/Rome

Doric columns

The sanctuary of Submachine 7: The Core and Submachine Universe strongly resembles a classical temple, in that it has and smaller structures often found in such temples. In Submachine 7: the Core, the sanctuary and part of the columns have been destroyed.

North America: Rock paintings

The rock paintings found within the bamboo town in Submachine 8: The Plan resemble paintings made by North American tribes and resemble a cowboy, a deer and a man with spear.
The whole background of the area resembles the Foggy Mountains, a state park found in USA.

Central America: Aztec

The calendar seen in the end of Submachine: 32 Chambers is an Aztec calendar stone. It is an exact replica of the Stone of Sun (Spanish; Piedra del Sol) or Cuauhxicalli (Eagle Bowl).

It was excavated in the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square, on December 17, 1790[6]. It represents the months used by the Aztecs that were identical in system to the Maya calendar but named differently. It was during the reign of the 6th Aztec monarch in 1479 that this stone was carved and dedicated to the principal Aztec deity: the sun. The stone has both mythological and astronomical significance. It weighs almost 25 tons, has a diameter of just under 12 feet, and a thickness of 3 feet.[7]

The face in the middle is the Aztec sun god/Lord of Heaven, Tonatiuh. Although this is a little obscure in the game, the deity's tongue is hanging out. This represents his desire to drink the blood from human sacrifices.

The four slots to which the bacab plates are attached represent the four Olin, the previous epochs, also known as Suns. The out-most ring in turn represents the twenty named days.

Gods and deities

The Bacabs are also seen in the form of four collectible plates. They are are a group of four gods, children of Itzamnaj and Ixchel. (Chak Chel is believed to be a personification of Ixchel). The Bacabs held up the world on their shoulders, similar to the Greek god Atlas.

Hieroglyphs

Many of the glyphs in the game appear to be taken from Maya calendar and codices, and given a new meaning. For example, the symbol looks almost exactly the same as the symbol , which refers to a day in the Tzolk'in calendar, kib. Similar cases are , and which are similar to the glyphs , and respectively, and all correspond to a Tzolk'in day. All of the mentioned symbols follow the simplified style of writing the names of the days using in various codices.

Maya hieroglyphs were the method of writing in the ancient Maya society. It seems that the hieroglyphs were used especially to write the Ch'olti' language, which appears to have been the Maya lingua franca. When other Mayan languages were written, these glyphs were generally used. Nowadays we can decipher almost all of the Mayan language, with some accuracy.

Glyphs are read from left to right and top to bottom; however, they were usually organized into columns of two glyphs.

In the menu, the glyphs seen can all be located in the Wikipedia picture of Palenque glyphs.

List of named hieroglyphs

Keep in mind that many of these glyphs are not named to reflect what they mean in the real world.

Reliefs

In the Submachine: 32 Chambers, one can find a relief of a human, seemingly steering a rocket ship. This type of relief has caused multiple conspiracy theories across the globe. They have even been seen as proof of interstellar travel of other intelligent species to Earth. Furthermore, it is speculated from this picture that the Maya had the technology to fly.

In 1952 Ruz Lhuillier was excavating the staircase of the Pyramid Temple when he found a sealed passageway that led to the burial crypt and sarcophagus of King K'inich Janaab' Pakal of Palenque. This was the first burial crypt found in Central America, let alone in a pyramid, and fueled a debate that the Mayas were in some way connected to Egypt. The lid of the sarcophagus is the depiction of King K'inich Janaab' Pakal .

The lid has been theorized to actually depict K'inich Janaab' Pakal falling through the Milky Way into the Underworld, Xibalba. The face behind him is the water god who guards Xibalba.

Stelae

In Submachine: 32 Chambers, there is a replica of the Stela N of Copán, Honduras.

Stelae are commemorative stone or wood statues, taller than they are wide. They usually have the name of the event or the deceaced if the occasion is a funeral. The stone slab also has a relief carved to it.

The Stela N was built to honour the fifteenth king of Copán, K'ak' Yipyaj Chan K'awiil, which roughly translates to Smoked Shell or Smoked Squirrel.

K'ak' Yipyaj Chan K'awiil ruled some years after Copán had a major setback; its thirteenth king, Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, was captured and killed by the rebelling vassal nation, Quiriguá. K'ak' Yipyaj Chan K'awiil and his son did a lot of work regaining the power Copán.

Central America: Olmec

Submachine: 32 Chambers features an appearance of a piece of Olmec culture. In one of the 32 chambers you can find an Olmec colossal head, which is the most widely recognized Olmec object.

The colossal heads are from 1.47 meters to 3.4 meters high, and have been estimated to weigh up to 50 tons. It is speculated that these heads depict some sort of chieftains, dressed like players of Mesoamerican ballgames. No two heads that have been found are the same. They are made from volcanic basalt, found in the Tuxtlas mountains (or Sierra de los Tuxtlas).

Central America: Toltecs

Chac Mool statue

Chac Mools which literally means Thundering Paw is the given name to a type of Toltec statue. They were made by Toltecs and other American Indians in areas with heavy Toltec influence. Toltecs were held high by the Aztecs as their cultural predecessors, in a similar manner as Europe holds Rome and Greece as its predecessors.

The true name for these statues remain unknowns to this day. The Chac Mool depicts a human figure in a position of reclining with the head up and turned to one side, holding a tray over the stomach. The meaning of the position or the statue itself remains unknown.

These statues were often found in temples.

In Submachine 32 the Chac Mool holds a goblet that is initially empty. The hieroglyphs imply that the statue refuses to drink water. This is a subtle clue hinting that it will instead drink sand.

South America: Nazca

The Nazca room from Submachine Universe is dedicated to the geoglyphs of Nazca. These huge formations, better known as the Nazca lines, were created by scraping of the dark layer of soil and revealing the lighter toned soil under it. These pictures are so large that they can only be properly perceived from the air.

Their real purpose is unknown, but the local legends suggest that they were sacrificial sites for the Nazcan god of rain. Another popular theory is that the figures are astronomical starmaps, but there is not enough evidence to tell for sure.

In the Subnet the lines appear as petroglyphs, glowing blue light on the walls. The designs include a spider, a condor, and a monkey, among others.

/Gautama Buddha/Quotes

Further more, two quotes of Siddhartha Gautama or Gautama Buddha[8] can be found inside the Sanctuary.

“The Mind is everything. What you think you become”— Buddha

“Be the witness of your thoughts”— Buddha

The full version of the second quote goes as follows; "Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. You are what observes, not what you observe.".[9]

These quotes are carved into two Buddha statues, which are set in two different stances from the mudrā (Sanskrit:मुद्रा), which are poses and hand gestures from Hindu and Buddha yoga and various other rituals. The one in the right end of the Sanctuary is shown in Dhyāna Mudrā or the meditation-based mudrā, which has the hand set on your lap, palms facing upwards. Dhyāna Mudrā shows utter concentration, and meditation on the Good Law.

The other statue seems to be making the Varada and Abhaya Mudrā, but switching the normal positions of the hands. Abhaya Mudrā is the "Mudrā of no-fear", which represents protection and dispelling of fear. This is the Mudrā that Buddha used to calm down a raging elephant. Varada Mudrā on the other hand is a sign of charity, which fits; the hand carries one of the stones needed for the puzzle. Varada is usually done with the left hand, while Abhaya is done with the right hand. In Submachine 7: The Core, however, the hands were represented the other way around.

Furthermore, each of the Buddha statues sit in the same asana (आसन), Padmāsana (पद्मासन) better known as Lotus Position. [10]

It would also seem that the right statue of Buddha in the sanctuary is modeled after the Great Buddha (大仏, daibutsu) in the Japanese Kōtoku-in temple (高徳院). However, the Great Buddha of Kōtoku-in is over thirteen meters high and weighs over 120 tons.[11] The Great Buddha statue portrays the Amitābha Buddha. This is somewhat incoherent as the quote under it is from Gautama Buddha.

One other Buddhist statue can be found, in the Submachine Universe location; the altar. In the altar there is a statue of a Buddha doing the Vitarka Mudrā, the mudrā of discussion and Buddhist teaching.

Maitreya

Maitreya Buddha, or the "fifth coming" of Buddha (after Gautama Buddha above) is depicted in a statue representing Murtaugh in the temple. While often depicted as being seated, sometimes Maitreya is shown standing with many beaded necklaces, as is shown in Submachine 9.

Christmas

A location in Submachine Universe is a reference of the Christian Hell. Its coordinates are 666, considered the Number of the Beast, or the Devil in Christian beliefs. The location's deep red color, ambient that represents screaming, and its vertical nature all allude to common descriptions of Hell, most prominently in Dante's "Inferno".

Hinduism

Ganesha

Inside the tomb of Murtaugh is a statue of the Hindu deity Ganesha, who has the head of an elephant. Ganesha represents the remover of obstacles and the patron of arts, sciences, intellect, and wisdom.

Krishna

At the Water Pantheon, a massive statue of Krishna stands two screens tall. Krishna is in his signature position of playing a flute.

Krishna is one of the most revered gods in the Hindu religion. He is regarded as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu born as human in "Dwapur Yug" (Iron Age). Is said to have been born between 3200 and 3100 BC according to Indian and Western researchers. Lord Krishna was born as the eighth child of Devki and Vasudev but was brought up by Mata Yashoda and Baba Nand.

Prithvi

Sacred animals

Two elephants are found in the garden in Submachine 9. Elephants represent the planet Jupiter in Hindu astrology, as well as strength and sensuality.

Outside both the tombs of Murtaugh and Elizabeth in the temple are statues of cows, which are also sacred animals in Hinduism; they represent a source of food and life and symbolize strength and non-injury.

The temple in Submachine 9: The Temple also appears to have been strongly inspired by Hindu influences. The temple roof, which breeches up through the floor of the pyramid, resembles the roof of a Hindu temple, complete with statues or carvings of two Nāga, beings that take the form of snakes or serpents.

At the top of the two sets of stairs which descend into the Temple, there are two bells representing Ghanta, which are traditionally placed at the entrances to Hindu temples and rung by entering worshipers as an invocation to the deity to listen to their prãrthnã and be blessed.

Islam

In Sub 8, there is a mosque or church in Arabic style in layer 2. The mosque is characterized by its architecture, including walls with arabesque designs, tudor-style arches, and a stone dome on top like that of the Hagia Sophia and other famous mosques.

Jainism

Apsaras are often associated with Buddhism and Hinduism, but they can also be associated with Jainism. This particular statue is modeled off of a statue found inside a Jain temple in Jaisalmer Fort, India.

Apsaras are typically described as female spirits of the air and skies that occupy the court of Indra, believed by many Vedic Indians to be one of the most powerful deities. They are usually described as being very beautiful nymphs that are well-taught in dance and music.

Taoism

In the Submachine Universe location known as the study we find the symbol ☯. This is called a taijitu (Chinese: 太極圖, read: tài jí tú) or more commonly the Ying and Yang symbol (Chinese:陰陽, read: yīnyáng).

The Taijitu is one of the oldest and best-known life symbols in the world, but few understand its full meaning. It represents one of the most fundamental and profound theories of ancient Taoist philosophy. At its heart are the two poles of existence, which are opposite but complementary. The light, white Yang moving up blends into the dark, black Yin moving down. Yin and Yang are dependent opposing forces that flow in a natural cycle, always seeking balance. Though they are opposing, they are not to be taken as counteracting one another. As part of the Tao, they are merely two aspects of a single reality. Each contains the seed of the other, which is why we see a black spot of Yin in the white Yang and vice versa. They do not merely replace each other but actually become each other through the constant flow of the universe.

Although under this headline, the taijitu isn't an solely Asian concept. It was also a symbol often used by the Celts. However, they used primarily used it as a particle in their art (for example a center of a flower). This is also less widely known, and the room had several Buddhist symbols with the two taijitus linking it to the East.

It should be noted that the two taijitus in the Study are mirrored, so that cutting them to pieces and interchanging the pieces would result in a black and a white circle.

Germany

Poland

One of the dishes found in the observation center has written on it "Telewizja Kablowa" which translates as "Cable Television" from Polish.

Russia

The UVB-76 room is a tribute to the homonymous shortwave radio station located in Russia.

Sweden

The radio of the Listeners room plays the first track of the Conet Project, made by the Swedish Rapsody number station.

Mathematics

The pi room in the Subnet Universe is a location dedicated to the mathematical constant π (IPA: /pʰaɪ/). It is defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry and has the numerical value of approximately 3.14 (for examples of other geometries, see for example this video). The room contains an approximation of the value of pi to 12150 decimal places, however, more than one trillion digits are currently known. Pi has some interesting properties, most of which are common among numbers but not necessarily easy to prove. For example:

Pi is irrational, that is, pi cannot be expressed as a quotient (π∈ℝ\ℚ, i.e. π≠a/b, such that a, b∈ℤ).

Pi is not a Liouville number, that is, it doesn't have very close rational number approximations (specifically: ∄p>0, q>1, so that 0<|π-p/q|<1/qn, ∀n∈ℕ).

The room also contains a diagram of a circle, which gives visual definitions of the following terms in Japanese:

Center (中心, chūshin), is defined as the point from which the distance to the edge of the circle is equal to all directions.

Radius (半径, hankei), often denoted by r, is defined as the distance between any point on the circle and the center of the circle.

Diameter (直径, chokkei), often denoted by d, is defined as the distance between the two intersection points of a line which passes through the center of a circle and the circle. By definition, this distance is twice the radius, i.e. d=2r.

Circumference (円周, enshū), often denoted by C, is defined as the length of the arc of a full circle, and is as such defined by the equation C=2πr.

Physics

The broken clock room in the Submachine Universe contains a tribute to the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment, in which a cat is placed in a box with a poison that will kill the cat at a random point in time. If it is assumed that we cannot do observations of the inside of the box, the cat may be, for practical purposes, be assumed to be in a state of dead (with a probability P) and alive (with a probability 1-P). This thought experiment was initially created as a means of mocking quantum mechanics, which deals with similar probability matrices, because it seems counter-intuitive.

One of the puzzles in Submachine 2: The Lighthouse involves the mass-energy equivalence equation (E=mc2) proposed by Albert Einstein. The equation is a special case of the more general energy-momentum relation E2=(p·p)c2+m2c4, in the case where the three-momentum vector p of a particular center of mass is zero i.e. the center of mass isn't moving.

Astronomy

The observatory in the Submachine Universe has many references to astronomy:

The image in the telescope shows the "cosmic dawn", the formation of the first big galaxies in the universe; it was made by scientists from the Institute of Computational Cosmology at Durham University.

The video in the projector is an assembly of images obtained between 1992 and 2006 at the VLT, and shows the gravitational attraction of the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy over nearby stars, in an area known as Sagittarius A*.

Mateusz Skutnik has stated that the blue mushrooms in Submachine 7: The Core are a reference to the Amanita Design game studio[12]. This is not only because of the name of the studio; the logo of Amanita studio is a cap of an amanita mushroom as well.

Furthermore, many of their works, such as Saromost, have mushrooms in them.

Amanita Design is an independent Czech game design studio, led by Jakub Dvorský. It was established in 2003. Their games tend to mix both drawn and photographic elements.

The capsule found in the cog trees in Submachine 8 is a colored version of the capsule with the monster found in another game made by Mateusz Skutnik, Daymare Town 3. In both games the capsules can be opened using the hammer. The difference is that the one in DMT3 has depth, while this one is solid and has a flat surface where the secret is located.

JayIsGames

The Escape from Jay Is Games room is a direct redesign of "Escape From JayIsGames", complete with the lizard and logo of the website, which the escape game is also based on.

The Basement's Spoon is referenced in Sub 3 in such a way that it's a direct resemblance to the spoon-bending scene from the Matrix. In the scene, a bald boy explains that it is impossible to bend a spoon, as it doesn't exist.

Like the Matrix itself, the Submachine's outlines in the Loop, the SubVerse, and the Edge are green, while the Core and the Plan are outlined in blue. The construction of the new basement hints that the Submachine itself simulates environments like the Matrix as well.

The ambience is a piano version of "Still Alive", a song from the game.

It is accessed via a (karma) portal.

The coordinates are "ptl", an abbreviation of "portal".

This room shows the apparent aftermath of a party, complete with cake remnants. A * * party and a cake are the promised rewards for completing the game. The missing cake references "The cake is a lie", a meme that originated from the game.

A valve is used to unlock this room. Valve is the name of the company that developed Portal.

The player can pick up a weight companion stone in this location, which constitutes a reference to Portal's weighted companion cube.

In addition, some mugs with a symbol resembling that of the Aperture Science company from Portal appear throughout the game.

The Ring is an American horror film directed by Gregor "Gore" Verbinski in 2002. The film is a remake of the Japanese film called Ring (リング) that in turn was made in 1998. Both are based on the novel written by Kōji Suzuki (鈴木光司) in 1991.

The novel and the movie series focus on a video tape, that causes all those who have watched it to die after seven days.

The tiled room (in the movie, it was the observation room for the girl) in the Lighthouse looks the same, as well as the movie projector set up there.

Technological singularity

In a note from Submachine 8, a computer answering the question "Why are we?" is mentioned. Advanced computers being asked to solve difficult or primordial questions to humanity is a recurring topic in many science fiction stories, such as The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, where a group of beings demand to know the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything from a supercomputer called Deep Thought (the answer resulting to be 42), or the Isaac Asimov's short story The Last Question.

In Submachine 10, the concept of technological singularity is referenced, by which an artificial intelligence capable of self-improvement (S.H.I.V.A. in this case) achieves superhuman intelligence in a short time span by continually rewriting and improving its algorithms. This is also a widely used trope in many science fiction works.